Louisiana

Louisiana gets under your skin quick with its wild culture, old-world history, and bayous that hum with life—from New Orleans streets electric during Mardi Gras to Cajun cuisine like a steamy bowl of gumbo or crispy po'boy, all laced with those French, African, Spanish threads that make every corner feel like a story half-told. Maybe it's the trumpet crying out at dusk, gators slipping past on a slow airboat, or that first bite landing just right—you're hooked before you know it.

New Orleans, wrapped tight in its Crescent City hug, breathes through French Quarter ironwork balconies catching the glow, Bourbon Street spilling voices till the sky lightens, music wrapping around like an old friend you can't shake. Festivals dot the months but Mardi Gras claims winter outright—parades churning beads into outstretched hands, masks and cheers blurring into one big memory—then tables groan under jambalaya pots and po'boys fried golden, the kind of food that turns strangers into supper companions.

Push out to the Atchafalaya Basin, swamp king of the lower 48, where airboats whisper through cypress shadows, great blues lifting off water, eyes glinting from the edges—it shields the land too, those Louisiana bayous knotting green to fight the sea's nudge. Nearby, Chicot State Park or Fontainebleau State Park hand over easy walks, casts into current, herons staking claims along the Mississippi bends.

The big houses hold tougher chapters—Oak Alley's oak lane pulls you past moss to tours owning up to slavery amid porch swings, Laura Plantation piecing Creole lives from attic journals over paths where blooms soften the edges.

Evenings turn soundtrack, New Orleans jazz hot off the stand, easing into Cajun wheezes and zydeco stomps that tug feet loose. Frenchmen Street strings raw joints where pickers pass breaks till the crowd thins, sweat real over any show.

Lafayette's Cajun Country settles it gentle—markets fat with links and spice, yards steaming boils under live oaks, talk unfolding slow like it was yesterday's news catching up.

New Orleans heat fades to bayou breath in Louisiana, peeling open finds you didn't plan on. Tie it close with Great American Tours—the full flavor, rhythm, ripple yours from the jump.